Energy Policy Act of 2005 - Conference Report

ENERGY POLICY ACT OF 2005--CONFERENCE REPORT -- (Senate - July 28, 2005)

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I rise to commend the conferees who have been meeting over the last few weeks to complete this comprehensive energy legislation. In particular, I want to thank the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate committees for their leadership in guiding this highly complex and important legislation through the process. Congress has tried several times to approve a comprehensive energy bill. Under their wise guidance and counsel, I believe that we will be successful this time. It is critical that we provide the country with the resources and tools to meet our growing energy needs and this bill will go a long way in accomplishing that goal.

There are many good and worthy provisions in this legislation. In broad terms, having a national energy policy will enable the country to more effectively utilize our resources to reduce our dependency on imported oil. It will enable us to diversify our sources of energy with renewable fuels, develop resources like nuclear power in the future and conduct research into hydrogen fuel cells. The bill recognizes that we need to develop ways to utilize one of our country's largest resources, centuries worth of coal deposits, and develop ways through research to burn it cleanly so it doesn't contribute to pollution and harm our environment.

However, I must express my disappointment that many of the provisions dealing with MTBE were not ultimately included in the final bill. As a lawyer and a former judge, the issue of liability is an issue that is near and dear to my heart. That we are denying liability protection to MTBE producers is disturbing to me. When Congress set out to encourage clean air by passing the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments and passed a particular fuel standard, Congress knew that MTBE would be widely used to satisfy the standard. As a result, manufacturers produced and marketed MTBE to satisfy the Congressional standard. Now, manufacturers face significant lawsuits solely because they produced a product that Congress encouraged them to produce.

Manufacturers did not make mistakes in production, they did not cut comers in an attempt to increase profits, and they did not try to trick consumers. All they did was exactly what Congress wanted them to do. It is only fair that any fuel producer who responds to a congressional mandate should be protected against legal action based upon the use of that mandated product. No one should be penalized for obeying the law. I am disappointed that there was a failure to address this issue.

Texas is proud of its heritage as an energy producing State. Texas will continue to play a vital role in providing for the Nation's energy needs. Even in light of my disappointments with the bill, I believe that this legislation provides strong leadership and guidance to address the critical energy needs of our country.

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